Korean J Prev Med.
2000 Mar;33(1):51-55.
Comparison of Efficiency between Individual Randomization and Cluster Randomization in the Field Trial
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine.
- 2Department of Statistics, Seoul National University College of Natural Science.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
In large-scale field trials, randomization by cluster is frequently used because of the administrative convenience, a desire to reduce the effect of treatment contamination, and the need to avoid ethical issues that might otherwise arise. Cluster randomization trials are experiments in which intact social unit, e.g., families, schools, cities, rather than independent individuals are randomly allocated to intervention groups. The positive correlation among responses of subjects from the same cluster is in matter in cluster randomization. This thesis is to compare the results of three randomization methods by standard error of estimator of treatment effect.
METHODS
We simulated cholesterol data varing the size of the cluster and the level of the correlation in clusters and analyzed the effect of cholesterol-lowering agent.
RESULTS
In intra-cluster randomization the standard error of the estimator of treatment effect is smallest relative to that in inter-cluster randomization and that in individual randomization.
CONCLUSIONS
Intra-cluster randomization is the most efficient in its standard error of estimator of treatment effect but other factor should be considered when selecting a specific randomization method.
